re: 4 dead, 30 shot in Chicago over the weekend

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I don't think Chicago's drop can be immediately contributed to gun control.

I agree. As of 7/7 police have seized over 3,300 illegal firearms so far this year so the "laws" aren't keeping guns out of the outlaws' hands.


Also, the way the classify homicides has been challenged by some who feel they misclassify to lower the rate.

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The homicide numbers are especially important, says one cop: “You should see these supervisors, like cats in a room filled with rocking chairs, afraid to classify a murder because of all the screaming they will hear downtown.”

The Truth About Chicago's Crime Rates

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That happens in almost every city (juking the stats). Didn't you guys ever watch The Wire?

Seriously, though...Chicago's murder rate has been dropping - at least in my opinion as a resident - because of the dismantling of the industrial-sized projects (Cabrini Green, Robert Taylor, Ida B Wells, etc) over the last two decades. Gun control, or the lack thereof, has little to do with it. Chicago lost 70,000 African-American residents between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, and a not insignificant portion of that population were public housing denizens. It's still very rough in certain parts of the south and west sides, but it has been ever so slowly squeezed further and further out. Places like East Garfield Park and West Wicker Park are now filled with yoga studios, microbreweries, and diners. That was unthinkable as little as six to eight years ago.

To be clear, I am no fan of gun control - it's a cultural problem at this point.